Big B calling out Ranveer, Sonam for ignoring his messages a joke or for publicity?

There was a buzz among twitterati when Sonam Kapoor and Ranveer Singh recently “ignored” Amitabh Bachchan’s messages. According to Big B, both Ranveer and Sonam didn’t respond to the text messages he had sent to wish them on their respective birthdays.

This wasn’t the first time that Big B picked on a junior for ignoring him. In the past seven years, he questioned Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta and Akshay Kumar after they didn’t respond to his messages. However, it is hilarious to watch celebs hustle to do damage control after being called out in public by the veteran actor.

While Sonam apologised, Ranveer wrote, “Except that I totally replied! I just cross checked it too! You were, in fact, one of the first to even wish! (sic).” While most fans took these instances as a joke, others felt that the superstar was doing it for public attention. “It is true that celebrities do things to be in the limelight once they stop getting the kind of attention they once enjoyed. However, the same does not apply to someone of Bachchan’s stature. Yes, he does have a dry humour, but he doesn’t need publicity,” says film historian and renowned archivist of vintage film memorabilia, S.M.M. Ausaja.

Director Mani Shankar adds, “Bachchan is beyond ‘who is hot and who is not’ comparisons. However, I agree that the less the celeb is in the news, the more the chances of them being forgotten by the public. There are many actors who started off with great movies, but when they couldn’t get another hit film, the public soon forgot about them.”

Rishi Kapoor also tweets about everything in the news and seems to be surrounded by controversies. Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar says, “Many celebs want to keep in touch with their fans and hence keep posting on social media. Rishi has a huge following and while some may feel that his words are harsh, what he says makes absolute sense to many others.”

Interestingly, many cricketers who were once reserved have come out of their shells after retirement. Virender Sehwag and Navjot Singh Sidhu are classic examples of this.

Indian sports writer Ayaz Memon says, “When cricketers are in the team, they don’t get to interact with the press as it’s the captain that speaks. Another reason why they could have opened up is because while Virender or Sidhu were playing, there weren’t many channels to interact with their fans but now there are. Most players let their performance do the talking while they are in the team. It’s after they retire that we discover new facets about them that surprise us.”